Spy case filed in Tamil Nadu against Pakistani diplomat in Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Saturday, 22 September 2012, 16:34 GMT]Amir Zubair Siddiqui, a diplomat in the Pakistan High Commission in Colombo has been accused in a court in Tamil Nadu for his alleged spy activities in India. According to the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Tamil Nadu Police in a court in Tiruchy, the Pakistani diplomat, through his contacts Haji and Shaji living in Colombo, has employed Thamim Ansari of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu to supply sensitive information of defence installations in India. The Q Branch of Tamil Nadu police arrested Ansari on Monday, while he was going to the Tiruchy airport to catch the Colombo flight. The DVDs seized from him had defence-related visuals, news reports said.

Ansari, 35-year-old, was produced in the court on Friday. The judge granted 24 hours for the police to continue investigations on condition that no mental or physical pain should be inflicted on him. The police have to produce him on Saturday for any further decision.

According to media reports, preliminary investigations involving top police officials of Tamil Nadu have revealed that Ansari had earlier met the Pakistani diplomat in Colombo and undertook the assignment for payment. His next assignment was to cover the nuclear submarine facility in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Three agencies of India, The National Investigation Agency (NIA), the intelligence wing of the Defence Ministry and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) will investigate Ansari separately, news reports said.

Preliminary investigations show a Pakistani espionage desk operating from Colombo concentrating on South India, media reports from India further said.

Citing RAW reports, The Pioneer said a few days ago that a Pakistani intelligence (ISI) listing post to tap the naval movements of India is in operation in Jaffna.

The spy arrest in Tamil Nadu this week has made Colombo-based Daily Mirror to report on Saturday that the ISI is “recruiting Lankan Tamils to spy on India, and the Mumbai-based Times of India to echo with a question “Is ISI recruiting Lankan Tamils to spy on India?”

Both citing ‘intelligence’ sources have targeted the Eezham Tamil refugees that the ISI is actively involved in recruiting Tamil refugees who had returned to the island, since they are familiar with India and could collect information without raising suspicions.

Meanwhile, 40 military personnel, 11 officers and 29 other ranks of the militaries of China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives and India, participated in a 16-day training programme conducted by SL military at Vaakarai and Verukal in the country of Eezham Tamils, this month.

The programme organized by the SL Defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa provided training to 2000 military personnel of Sri Lanka in the occupied country of Eezham Tamils.